Texas A&M football: Don’t listen to Chris Del Conte’s nonsense

Texas A&M football has not played Texas since our school left for a better conference, but don’t let their new AD convince you he wants to play us.

It’s sad what has come of the historic Texas and Texas A&M football rivalry. The two teams have not played each other since 2011, the season before the Aggies smartly decided the Big 12 was not the best conference to be in and joined the Southeastern Conference.

It’s no secret football is the biggest money maker for most universities, and that’s definitely true for universities in the South. Joining the best football conference made all the sense in the world, even if it meant sacrificing the Thanksgiving week game.

However, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne, and most of Texas A&M’s brass, wanted the game to continue. We took a “anytime, anywhere, anyplace” approach to the game. Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds killed it.

“They left,” Dodds said in 2013. “They’re the ones that decided not to play us. We get to decide when we play again. I think that’s fair.

So, right when Texas A&M left for the SEC, we wanted the game to continue, they did not. It’s also important to note here that Texas’ non-conference schedule was worked out for those years. More on this later.

Chris Del Conte, Texas’ new AD who was hired last year, made headlines when he tried to get the rivalry going again. He tried to get A&M to schedule Texas for a home-and-home in 2022 and 2023.

There is so much to unpack here.

First of all, this “opening” for Texas only occurred because Ohio State asked Texas to move back their home-and-home from those years to 2025-26. Del Conte called A&M, but we already have the Miami Hurricanes on the schedule for those years. Are we supposed to apologize or accommodate Texas now that THEY have an opening in their schedule?

Del Conte said “the timing didn’t work out for them.” No kidding, guy. It wouldn’t have fit your schedule either had OSU not rescheduled. You weren’t going to play us and OSU anymore than we were going to play you and Miami in non-conference.

This is why Del Conte’s request is bullcrap. He knew A&M would say no. He wanted to get the upper hand in the post breakup relationship by taking that conversation public. Guess what, Del Conte:

We may have left, but your school decided to be petty. We see right through your veiled request. Unless the game is to get back on a permanent basis, a home-and-home is nothing more than a money grab. Considering both universities ranked No. 1 and 2 in the revenue department last year, no one needs that.

Why is this coming up again, you might ask? Well, Del Conte sold the same sob story to the Fort-Worth Star Telegram recently.

“I would like to think at some point in time it will get done but the timing didn’t work for them; I would love for this to happen because it’s good for college football,” Del Conte said. “We had an opening in 2022 and ’23 and it didn’t work for them. The timing didn’t work.”

YAWN.

This is getting tired. Either get serious about getting the game back or don’t talk about it at all.

Jeff Shull is the Site Expert for the Gig Em Gazette on FanSided. Follow him on Twitter, and be sure to follow the Gig Em Gazette on Facebook and Twitter.